What is a good reason for departing from a mandatory costs budget? A practical view from the Bar – Littleton Chambers

“The costs budgeting provisions of the Jackson Report are among the most significant issues facing litigators today. One key concern has been that parties and their legal advisers face having otherwise recoverable costs disallowed if they fail to comply with the requirements concerning costs budgets. Those concerns were heightened by the decision in Sylvia Henry v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2012] EWHC 90218 (Costs) to disallow £268,832 of costs on the grounds that the claimant had failed to comply with rules concerning costs budgeting in PD 51 (see Legal update, Costs management: first decision under Defamation Proceedings Pilot Scheme). Those rules formed part of the Defamation Proceedings Pilot Scheme, on which the case was the first decided authority. The decision was taken to have considerably wider significance because of the similarity between the provisions of that pilot scheme and the main elements of the impending Jackson reforms.”